


The B-Team (A Catra and Bow Buddy Adventure)

by TippenFunkaport



Series: SPOP Canon Compliant Post-War Fics [3]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Bows & Arrows, Canon Compliant, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Magic, Male-Female Friendship, Post-Canon, Post-War, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-10
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27486634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TippenFunkaport/pseuds/TippenFunkaport
Summary: When She-Ra defeated Horde Prime and released the magic stored in the center of Etheria, it didn’t all come out of the planet evenly. Prime’s spires have created hot spots, areas of concentrated magic that make powers go haywire. After a princess alliance mission goes catastrophically wrong, it’s up to regular, non-magic Catra and Bow to deal with the situation.aka Catra and Bow try to save their stubborn magic girlfriends from themselves and accidentally become friends along the way.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow & Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Swift Wind
Series: SPOP Canon Compliant Post-War Fics [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877971
Comments: 129
Kudos: 220





	1. Sneaking Out

He shouldn’t be doing this. Glimmer was going to be so mad at him. But what other choice was there?

Bow moved down the hallway as quietly as he could, listening to the soft voices of the Bright Moon guards changing shift in the courtyard below. Outside the window, the moonstone hummed peacefully, glowing against the dark sky. It reminded him of evenings not that long ago when he’d have to sneak back in after another fake school break.

Sigh. He really hated lying to people he loved.

He hesitated where the hallways branched. Maybe this was a bad idea. What even was he going to do when he got there? Knock? If Adora answered the door, not only was there no way she’d agree to this, she’d immediately tell Glimmer and that would defeat the entire purpose. He was still worrying how they'd deal with that inevitable blowout when someone materialized in front of him with making a sound. 

Catra.

“Wha—” He cut his own sound of surprise short when he noticed she’d also dressed for a fight. She gave him a toothy grin. 

“Hey, Arrow Boy. I had a feeling you and I were thinking the same thing at that meeting.” She flicked her tail and then started back down the hallway she’d just come from. “Come on. Before anyone figures out we’re gone.”

He grabbed her arm. She spun around, claws extended, and he let go immediately. Her look was feral and dangerous. 

OK, so no touching. Got it.

It had been weeks since the fall of Prime, even longer than that since Bow knew for sure Catra was on their side, and, while he considered her a friend, he wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about him. But, at least for tonight, they were going to have to trust each other. 

"Too many guards that way. I usually go out a window." He showed her the grappling hook and rope he'd looped around his belt. 

“Usually?” Catra raised her eyebrows and smirked, hostility gone. ”I love that apparently sneaking out of this place is a regular thing for you. Who knew Mr. Sunshine had it in him?”

He didn't respond, just hooked up the rope and started repelling down the wall as carefully as he could. Had Adora told Catra about the whole thing with his dads? Should he? He wasn’t really sure he was comfortable with that. For as much time as the four of them spend together as a group, he really didn’t feel like he knew Catra half as well as Adora or even Glimmer did. 

He touched ground, surprised to see Catra land neatly on all fours alongside him, the grappling hook wrapped around her arm. He looked all the way up to the window they’d just exited and then back over to Catra. She shrugged. 

"What can I say? I always land on my feet." She wrapped the rope up around the hook and tossed it all under a bush. "If anyone had seen that, they'd know something was up for sure, genius. Do you even have a plan for when Sparkles wakes up and you're not there?"

Bow exhaled. Guess it was too much to hope she’d make this easy. “Well, I’m hoping we’ll get back before she notices. But, in case we don’t, I left a note that I had to go deal with something. Which is not… exactly a lie.”

“Right, because that’s not suspicious at all. You seriously couldn’t have come up with something better than that?”

He pretended to secure his gear. Sure, he could have. He’d lied to his dads for years without them figuring anything out. But he didn’t want to lie to Glimmer because he hated it, hated especially how much tonight felt like the night he and Adora had snuck out to rescue Entrapta on Beast Island and they’d fought and then he’d almost lost her forever. 

The stupid thing was, they could have avoided all of this if Glimmer had listened to him in the first place! Though that wasn’t entirely fair. The alliance meeting had been chaos, heated emotions, nobody really listening to anyone. Plus, he hadn't tried hard enough to make his objections heard; he knew he hadn't. But how were you supposed to tell someone, even though you always trusted them, sometimes they are WRON—not right about something when that exact exchange was this loaded moment from your past?

And that was a big mess of raw emotions he really sort of wanted to talk to someone about, but he just wasn’t sure that someone was Catra. So he ignored the question and started moving toward the cover of the woods as fast as he could. There hadn't been stars in the sky the last time he done this. Nights were so much brighter in Etheria these days. 

"What about Adora?" He asked when they’d reached the tree line, out of sight of the castle. 

"Eh, she sleeps like the dead, anyway. And she knows I like to wander around at night, especially when I… can’t sleep.” Catra paused, a loaded silence. It made Bow wonder if maybe there was something she wanted to talk to someone about too. In the soft glow of the Whispering Woods, he saw her rub the back of her neck. But before he could even figure out what to say, she continued. “Whatever. The worst that happens is she climbs around trying to find me on the roof or something. If she gets mad at me, I'll deal with it. It's not like it'll be the first time. I'm more worried about Sparkles. If she figures out where we are, she'll teleport there in half a second and—"

"I know. I know." Bow was well aware of how bad this situation could get. "Then let's get going. The sooner we do this, the sooner we'll be back." Maybe they really could handle the situation and be back before either Glimmer or Adora woke up, and then nobody had to be mad at anybody. Though they never seemed to be that lucky. "Should we bring anyone else?"

"Who would we bring? Do we even know any other normal people?" Catra asked. 

Bow thought about it. "Sea Hawk?"

"Ugh, no."

General Juliet would just report them to Glimmer. Huntara was busy trying to restore what passed for order in the Crimson Waste. He didn't even bother suggesting the Hordaks. 

"Then I guess it's just us. The B Team."

Catra groaned. “Let me guess. The B stands for ‘Bow.’”

“I just meant, out of the four of us, you and I wouldn’t exactly be anyone’s top choice when the other options are She-Ra and the sorceress Queen of Bright Moon.” 

"Oh, OK. Fine.” Catra shrugged.

“I bet we’re going to be a great team.” Bow hid a grin. It totally stood for Bow. “Ready to go?”

“Just don't slow me down, Arrow Boy.” Catra pushed in front of him and then stopped, her tail twitching. “Wait. How are we going to get there? Sparkles was going to teleport us tomorrow, and it’d take forever on a Horde skiff.”

Bow couldn't help but smile as he pushed aside the curtain of vines to where Swift Wind was waiting for them. “Did someone say Swift Wind?”

"Hey, Bow! Catra." Swift Wind pawed at the ground, looking nervous. Wow, nervous enough that he hadn’t even jump at the chance to use his catch phrase. He probably didn't enjoy lying to the others anymore than they did. "Ready to do this?"

"What? No no no. Absolutely not." Catra rounded on Bow. "Not only did I tell you people that I am NOT getting back on that annoying, loudmouth… thing EVER again, he's magic. Normals only, or I'd be taking Melog. That's the whole point of the mission!"

"Hey, hairball, you got a better way to get there?" Swift Wind glared at Catra. Catra glared back. Bow rubbed his face. Like they needed this right now? The relationship between She-Ra faithful steed and She-Ra's girlfriend was, at best, strained. 

“Can we please just get going?” He looked between the two of them. “The sooner we get there, the sooner we’re back and the less likely anyone’s girlfriend gets really super mad at them and stops loving them and never speaks to them ever again.”

Not that Glimmer would do that! Probably? He really didn’t want to take any chances.

"Fine." Catra vaulted up off the ground and onto Swift Wind's back. From the way Swift Wind yelped, she hadn’t bothered to sheath her claws first. 

Bow shook his head and climbed up behind her. Half the time he felt like he was babysitting the rest of them. "Come on, let's get this over with." 

Swift Wind rolled his eyes and then shifted his weight, launching them off the ground. All of Catra's cool attitude couldn't hide the way she immediately tensed and gasped as they rose into the air. As much as they didn’t get along, she was sure hugging Swift Wind’s neck for dear life right now. Why did he have the feeling Swift Wind was taking it just a little bit too fast to spite her?

Catra made a sound halfway between a hiss and a whimper, and Bow tried not to laugh. Poor Catra. He’d ridden on Swift Wind enough times that he trusted the horse not to drop them. Besides, no matter how many times he’d done it, there was still something really thrilling about riding across the sky on a flying unicorn. One of a million things about his life now, he never would have believed as a regular kid. 

No, the lurching feeling in his gut had nothing to do with the flight and everything to do with the sight of Bright Moon shrinking below them.

They could pull this off, right? Just him and Catra, no magic? Get along enough to get it all done tonight themselves, so nobody else got hurt?

Yeah, of course they could! Wasn’t that what he was always saying, that you didn’t need magic to be a force for good? It was all going to be fine.

He repeated it until he almost believed it, and Bright Moon was only a tiny speck.


	2. Sneaking In

Shitshitshit. They were way too fucking high. Why had she opened her eyes? Catra squeezed them shut again. 

She was going to kill them. Arrow Boy and his idiot ideas. Fucking Adora and her annoying-ass flying horse of magical destiny or whatever. Sparkles too, for good measure. Maybe go back in time and punch the First Ones in the face while she was at it. Take out everyone responsible for the circumstances that lead to this exact moment where she was clinging for her life to a godsdamn horn-headed bird horse who had it out for her. 

“Are we there yet?” Catra tried to make it sound casual, but she was pretty sure she wasn’t fooling anybody. At least Arrow Boy hadn’t made one of his stupid comments about the fact that she’d wrapped her tail around his wrist in a desperate bid for a little more security.

“Almost!” Swift Wind said. She almost relaxed a little at that news, but then—

Fuck! The nightmare nag banked to the left so fast he almost pitched her off into the rocky landscape below. She groaned, tightening her grip around his neck, his bright orange mane whipping against her face and getting into her mouth. Claws would give her a little more purchase and would also serve the winged asshole right, but her desire to not plummet to her death outweighed her need for revenge right now. 

She was going to die. Shadow Weaver, Horde Prime, Hordak, that snake guy with the goofy name she hadn’t bothered to remember she’d made it through all of that only for it to end like this. Death by rainbow unicorn. 

Fucking embarrassing. 

“Can you let us down at the start of the pass?” Arrow Boy called over the rush of air around them and the steady thrum of Swift Wind's wings. HOW did he sound so casual right now? Was he even holding on to anything?

“Got it!” Swift Wind pitched straight downward and Catra shrieked outright as they plummeted straight towards the ground. Just went it felt like she was going to die, just drop completely dead of fear, Swift Wind brought them to a graceful, if abrupt landing. 

Sweet fucking mercy, thank gods it was over. Her body didn’t seem to want to believe they were on the ground, and the lurching feeling of being in the air lingered. She controlled her breathing, the way Perfuma had taught her to do when she got angry, and slowly released her grip. Shit, her arms were actually shaking. She shook them out. 

Knock it off, body. You want Arrow Boy to know you’re a scaredy cat? 

“Catra? You OK?” Arrow Boy asked, and Catra realized her tail was still twisted around his wrist, tight enough that he probably lost circulation in his hand miles ago. She pulled it back, smoothing it out before he could make fun of it for fluffing out and being cute or whatever, but he didn’t say anything. 

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Catra leaped off Swift Wind's back on all fours, straightened up and almost fell over. Her legs were like jelly. She leaned against the rock wall and tried to will the world to stop tilting. “Still not as terrible as teleporting.”

Arrow Boy opened and closed his numb hand a few times and slid off Swift Wind’s back casually, like they’d just been sitting on a furry rainbow bench for the last half hour and not careening through the air on a winged maniac. “I don’t get why you hate teleporting so much.” 

“You joking? It’s like being ripped apart and then slammed back together but, like, with glitter up your nose.”

He actually laughed. “OK, maybe it’s a little disorienting at first, but not in a bad way. It’s sort of tingly. Like a crush or a first kiss or something.” 

“Whatever.” Was he for real right now? From the moony look on his face, yup. Ugh, barffff. Sparkles would probably think that was romantic or something. She’d have to remember to give her crap about it later. She could probably give him crap about it right now, but since he hadn’t said anything about the tail holding or the shrieking or the… 

Anyway, he could have this one freebie. 

“So, they’re in there?” Swift Wind asked, pawing the ground, his wings tucked back at his side. 

“As far as we know.” Arrow Boy stepped closer to the small opening between the mountains. “Swift Wind, you better hang way back. I'll signal with a flare arrow if we need you, but I don't want you getting too close, just in case.”

“Alright just… be careful, OK?” Swift Wind looked her way. “Both of you.” 

“You got it buddy,” Arrow Boy blurted as if he was afraid Catra was going to make some remark, but she was honestly too surprised that the horse even cared. Jeez. Was there anyone around here you could just hate without having to worry about being blindsided by the power of friendship or some bullshit? “Come on.”

She started towards the narrow opening in the cliff face. It looked pretty tight. They’d have to pass through single file. Arrow Boy stopped to unfold his bow, and Catra bounded through first, ready as hell to get this over with.

“Hey. Let’s stick together, OK?” Arrow Boy asked from somewhere behind her. 

“Fine.” She turned around specifically to make sure he saw her roll her eyes. 

The pale stone walls on either side towered over them, her cat instincts begging to climb. From down here, they wouldn’t see what they are dealing with until they were basically on top of it. But going up meant ditching Arrow Boy, and they’d just agreed to stay together. 

Great, just barging into a fight without even knowing what to expect. He was cramping her style already. 

All they knew for sure was that the small valley up ahead held one of the largest strongholds of Horde forces left. But the secluded location meant their intel was spotty, so they really didn’t know exactly what was there. Based on the number of clones spotted in this area, mostly trouble. 

Catra grinned, her claws sliding out. She liked trouble. 

What—She froze, her ears twisting toward the soft hum. Before she’d registered what or where it even was, the spybot hit the ground, sparking around the arrow pierced through the center. She blinked at it and then turned to see Arrow Boy, another arrow already notched, his eyes on the sliver of sky above them. 

“That was a good shot.” She crushed the bot under her foot. Haven’t seen one of those in a while. Not since… She swallowed, pushing the feeling down deep. 

Now was not the time. 

“You don’t have to sound so surprised.”

But she was. The thing wasn’t even in view before he’d loosed his arrow. She’d assumed he had to know how to use that thing, he carried it everywhere with him, but she’d just gotten so used to thinking of him as Adora and Glimmer’s useless sidekick and that had been… actually competent. Not that she’d tell him that or anything. 

“Do you think it saw us?” She listened but heard nothing out of the ordinary. 

“I don't know. We better be quick.” 

“Then try to keep up, Arrow Boy.” Catra took off on all fours. She heard him mutter something under his breath and then follow. He wasn’t near as fast as her, of course, but he kept up, even when she stopped holding back. Maybe when this was over, they could have a proper race. It’d be nice to find someone a little more challenging to beat than Adora. 

They had to be almost there. The fur on the back of her neck tingled. It had been way too long since she’d gotten to punch something. 

“Careful. We’re close.” Arrow Boy’s voice was soft, and she pulled herself short. 

“How do you—” She sneezed, something tickling at her nose. Behind her, Arrow Boy snorted, and she rounded him. They were moving slower now, keeping their voices low. “Go ahead, tell me it’s cute again, and DIE boy.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Yeah, but he was thinking it. She could tell by that little grin he was doing a terrible job of hiding. She shoved him for good measure, but that only made him smile outright. 

“So what’s the plan?” Her nose tickled again, but she rubbed it away before it could turn into anything adorable. 

“Shut the thing down then get out of here before any of the clones even realize we’re here. Come back tomorrow with the rest of the alliance, deal with the stragglers when the magic’s back to normal.” He switched his bow to his other hand and pulled out his tracker pad. “Here. Take a look.”

“Aw, that’s no fun. I thought we were going to fight.” She leaned on his shoulder so she could see the spire schematic he’d pulled up. 

“Catra, there could be anywhere from a couple dozen to hundreds of clones in there. Not to mention bots, if that sentry was any indication. There are two of us, zero magic between us, and—”

“I mean, if you’re worried about a little fight…” She lay it on real thick. 

He sighed and leaned back against the rock. “I’m not worried about anything but what happens if Glimmer and Adora wake up before we get back. Can we please just do it this way? In and out. Nobody gets hurt. Nobody gets mad at anybody.” 

She laughed, but stopped when she noticed how he was worrying at his lower lip. That was the second time he’d said that thing about Glimmer getting mad at him.

“You don’t seriously think Sparkles is really going to, like, stop loving you or speaking to you or whatever over this, right? If you do, you’re a bigger idiot than I thought.” He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye like he was waiting for the punchline. Well, whatever, sometimes there isn’t one. And she wasn’t comforting him, OK? She was just… giving him shit about this because she wanted him to stop being pathetic. It was embarrassing. “She loves you, dumbass, though I sure as hell don’t know why. All that glitter must have scrambled her brain.”

“It’s just…” He exhaled and shook his head. “Look, let’s just focus on the plan, OK? The spire's control panel is located around the left side, just past the entrance. Here.” He pointed to the red dot on the schematic. “Entrapta's got everything we need to shut it down already loaded on this. You just plug it in, give it a few minutes to load, and then it should go dark.”

He stowed his pad and held out a tiny purple drive. Catra looked from it to him in disbelief. 

“Wait a minute, me? You're the tech guy!”

“I'm also the ranged weapon guy.” He gestured to his bow. 

“Damn it. Fine.” Catra snatched it from his hand. Whatever, she could handle it. She’d have to, anyway. Another sneeze overtook her before she could stop it. She rubbed her nose. 

“Just like on Krytus. Do you think you’re allergic to magic or something?”

“Is that magic?” She almost felt something tingling in the air all around them. She sneezed again. “Ugh. I fucking hate magic. I know it’s not as evil as they taught us it was in the Horde, but it still creeps me out.” 

“Yeah, it took me a long time to shake that too.” He fiddled with the arrow resting on his bowstring. “When Glimmer first got her powers, I was terrified it was going to change her, like turn her into some fairy tale witch or something. It really upset her when all she could do was sparkle, but I was so relieved it didn’t change her into something unrecognizable.”

“Wait, since when were you freaked out by magic? Didn’t you grow up with all this stuff?”

He rubbed the back of his neck and looked sheepish. “Uh, no, actually. My dads didn’t really approved of the princesses or magic or any of that. It’s a long story, but they just didn’t want any of us involved in the war on either side.”

“But they let you become a rebellion soldier? And hang out with Sparkles?” 

“Well… no, not exactly. I sort of… hid all of that from them for a really long time.” He glanced over at her and then looked away. “I made up this fake school and pretended to… it’s not important. They know now, obviously.” 

“Wait…” Catra was still trying to get her head around this. “You made up a whole double life and hid ALL of THIS for, like… years?”

“Yeah, pretty much.” He looked a little perplexed by how hard she was laughing. 

“That’s fucking hilarious. I can’t believe you pulled that off.” She wiped a tear from her eye. 

His face immediately lit up. “Thank you! I mean, yeah, it sucked lying to them and I hated them not knowing the real me but Adora and Glimmer acted like it was this whole shameful thing and I just felt like… OK, yeah, it wasn’t the best plan but isn’t anyone going to be impressed I manged to pull this off for so long? Like, at least appreciate all the work and planning that went into the whole thing!” 

“Well, I’m impressed. That’s just… amazing.” Somehow the fact that Arrow Boy, Mr. Innocence himself, had scammed his own parents for half his life to do exactly what they didn’t want him to do was the funniest thing she’d ever heard. “Man, I totally underestimated you. How’d your cover get blown?”

He rolled his eyes and grinned. “Adora.” 

“Of course.” They both laughed then, a real proper laugh, and Catra had to admit it felt kind of good. There weren’t many people she’d ever laughed with like this. “I need that story at some point.”

“Definitely.” He hesitated and then asked. “But you can feel it, right? The magic?” 

“I don’t know. I guess.” She looked at him. ”Can you?”

“Well, yeah. I think it’s because I knew Glimmer both before and after she got her powers, you know? So I noticed the difference. And then, when we were in space, they were gone again and then we got back and I could… anyway. We’re doing the right thing by trying to keep the others away. None of the other places felt this strong.”

She tried to feel what he was talking about. There was something kind of stifling about the air here. Was that the magic? 

“I just don’t understand why those idiots think it’ll go any better tomorrow morning if they’re all there then it did last time when we only had two malfunctioning magic people to deal with.” Catra shuddered, thinking about the lighting shaped burns all over Scorpia’s arms. Once they’d gotten out, Adora had used She-Ra’s healing and Scorpia was fine now, but everyone was still pretty shaken up about it. Apparently that wasn’t a thing that just happened, princesses hurting themselves with their own powers, and they were damn lucky Scorpia had taken out the spire in the process of almost taking out herself or it could have gone a lot worse. 

What would have happened to Adora if they hadn’t gotten out of there when they did? What could still happen tomorrow if they didn’t get this done tonight before the rest of the royal alliance of dumbasses went changing in? She didn’t even want to consider it. 

“Everyone’s so overpowered since the magic is back, it’s like she… they think they’re invincible sometimes.” Arrow Boy sighed, and Catra felt like they were exactly on the same page for a change. Without another word, they started moving again. 

One minute they were picking their way quickly through the narrow pass and then suddenly it ended in a sliver of darkness. They’d reached the valley. Her eyes immediately focused on the spire, looming out of the new grass.

That stark, sterile white. The insistent hum pulsing in and out, in and out, like the whole ship was breathing down her neck. Those bright green lights, burning, stinging, no, too bright, too BRIGHT! I can’t see, can’t breathe, no no, drowning, dying, NO get out of my head get OUT—

It was the freaking sneeze that did it, distracted her before the panic could suck her in entirely. She could still feel it tugging at her, threatening to pull her back down. She fought to think about something, anything else. When she closed her eyes, everything was blinding green, so she held them open until they stung. She turned her back on the Prime tech, heart thudding against her chest. 

He’s gone. He can’t hurt you anymore. She rubbed her scar on her neck, like that could scrub the past out of her head. 

”Shoot, there's absolutely no cover once we move past these rocks. We'll have to make a break for those trees.” Arrow Boy had caught up and was craning past her to see the valley beyond. “That one looks sturdy enough to climb. If I can get some height, it’d be a lot easier to pick off—Catra?” 

“It’s nothing, alright?” She shoved him backwards, leaping past him so she was back in the comforting small space of the pass. “I’ve got it under control. Just… leave me the fuck alone for a minute.” 

She expected him to come after her or spout out some bullshit about friendship and hugging it out or whatever, but he didn’t. She counted breaths, in and out, until she felt like she had herself under control again. When she finally turned back around, he was watching her. 

“What?” She hated that she flushed, that freaking Arrow Boy of all people had to see her like this. Now he was going to be as bad as Adora, acting like she was made of glass that could shatter any minute when all she wanted when that happened was for everyone to just act normal so she could distract herself from it, get control over it. Or worse, maybe he’d start acting like Sparkles or the other chipped princesses, all of them so convinced they knew exactly what she was going through when they had NO idea what it had been like, NO idea how it felt when… 

Deep breaths. Just like Perfuma had taught her. She slammed the heels of her hands into her eyes. She could handle this. She would not let that fucker Prime control her from beyond the grave, that was for sure. 

“Catra, I didn’t think… Let me have the drive, I can—” He held his hand out, but she slapped it away, probably harder than she needed to but she was barely keeping it together right now. 

“I said, I’m fine! Fucking drop it!” She squared up to him, ready for him to be a pain in the ass about it like everyone else was, but he just held up his hands in surrender and took a step backward. 

“Alright. But if you want to—” At least, he had the sense to stop that sentence when she hissed at him, low and dangerous. “OK! OK. Dropping it.” 

And then he just… did? Just completely dropped it like she’d asked and started babbling on about how Entrapta had a couple of theories about why the spires made the magic go haywire like nothing had happened. And she kind of hated how much she appreciated that right now. 

The tickle in her nose was stronger than ever and she sneezed again, twice in rapid succession. Arrow Boy stopped mid-thought and gave her a playful look. She scowled at him and he pretended innocence. He didn't even have to say it anymore, just knowing he thought it was cute was enough to irritate the shit out of her. But considering how chill he’d been about her little freak out before, she guessed she could give him another freebie.

“Wow.” He was moving his free hand through the air like he was touching something invisible. “It’s so strong here.”

“Yeah, it’s great. We’re wasting time.” She’d gotten herself together and didn’t want to wait until she lost it again. “Let’s get this done. All this magic crap is creeping me out.” 

“Excuse me, some of my best friends are magic.” He grinned at her, readying his bow.

“Uh, aren't all of your best friends magic?”

“SOME of my best friends are magic.” He booped her on the nose and then rolled out into the clearing and had disappeared up a tree before she could retaliate. She caught herself smiling before she remembered to be annoyed about it.

Shit. They really were becoming friends, weren’t they? Ugh, friends with Arrow Boy. Fucking embarrassing…

She tossed the tiny drive into the air and caught it again. In and out, right?

This was going to be easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first time I have gotten to write Catra's POV as herself and not a literal cat! 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Comments are greatly appreciated!


	3. "Easy"

Plug in the drive. Shut the whole thing down. Leave without even getting her claws dirty. A waste of her talents, honestly, but at least it meant she’d be back to Bright Moon snuggled up with Adora before morning. 

Catra made her way carefully across to the spire, sticking to the shadows. She hadn’t seen any patrols, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there somewhere. Arrow Boy had her back from above, but he didn’t have cat eyes so she wasn’t sure how much help he’d be. The new stars only cast so much light. 

It helped, honestly, that there wasn’t a lot of cover. She had to think quick and stay focused, her eyes and ears tuned to any potential danger and not on the gigantic reminder of Prime jabbing upwards out of the earth right in front of her. The more she had to think about, the easier it was to keep control of thoughts. 

Deep breath. In and out. Easy.

She found the panel from the schematic and jabbed Entrapta’s drive into the slot. Then she jumped backward because she’d worked with Entrapta long enough to know there was a high likely hood of anything that princess built just blowing the fuck up for no good reason, but luckily it didn’t even smoke a little. Actually, it didn’t seem to do much of anything for a full second until all the lights on the spire turned an angry red and clones came pouring out of the entrance. 

Shit! Of course it didn’t fucking work! Why would any plan these idiots came up with ever be any good? 

The clones hadn’t seen her yet and she should have used that moment to get to away before they did, but she couldn’t move. Her feet froze to the spot, her heart pounding. Then the entire group of them turned in her direction as one, and she gasped. 

She didn’t have a problem with clones in general. Prime had done a number on them as much as anybody. Wrong Hordak was alright, if irritatingly perky. She and Hordak would never be friends, exactly, but they could stand in the same room together without trying to kill each other and that felt like progress. She was on friendly enough terms with the ones in her therapy group, but that’s because they were like regular people. They had names and personalities and wacky multi-color hairstyles. They were just trying to figure out how to be individuals for the first time and find their place in this new post-war world like everyone else. She definitely got that.

It wasn’t their fault they shared a face with a monster. 

But these clones… they were different. Too much like their departed leader. Wanna be warlords who when faced with the freedom to think for themselves instead fell back on the only thing they’d ever known and chose domination and destruction. A cult who seemed to think the only thing Prime had done wrong was that he hadn’t been ruthless enough and that the best way to keep his mission alive was to kill everyone who’d opposed him. 

Starting with her and her friends.

Their hair was still as blank as it had been under Prime’s control, but it was longer, shaggier, less controlled. They still wore those white robes, but they had modified them, slashed and marked them in elaborate patterns. But the part that made her gasp, that left her rooted to the spot as they advanced on her, their faces pure malice, was that they had given themselves extra green eyes, turning each of them into a copy of Prime himself. 

The clone at the front sneered and raised his arm cannon. It powered up, glowing searing green and something deep inside of her was telling her to move, to run, that she was going to die but she couldn’t hear it over the rush of panic that was her own blood in her ears. The clone said something, but whatever it was was lost as he and the one behind him slammed backwards against the side of the spire, glued there with green goo. 

Arrow Boy! That dumbass just totally saved her life. Ugh, he was probably going to give her crap about that forever. The sheer irritation that she owed one to freaking Arrow Boy was actually strong enough that it pulled her out of it.

Time for a fight. 

Catra launched herself into the air, slamming her fist into the back of the nearest clone’s neck. Uh, that should have knocked him out cold and not stung nearly as much as it did? Instead, he only grunted before reaching up and tossing her at the side of the spire. Shit, did these assholes get wise to the whole off-button thing and finally add a little neck armor? 

She flipped into the air, pouncing off the side of the spire, using the momentum to slam into several clones at once. It was kind of satisfying to have something solid to punch that looked so much like Prime. Much more satisfying than battling inner demons. She wrestled an arm canon off one, setting it off by accident, sending clones sprawling in all directions as they tried to avoid the blast. She took advantage of the chaos to take cover behind a rock to figure out how to do that blasting thing again, but on purpose this time. 

Once she was fairly sure she’d worked it out, she peered around the edge of the rock to get her bearings. There were about a dozen clones wrapped in nets or trapped in goo, but still plenty on their feet. Distracted, too, which meant now was her chance to… 

Wait. What were they looking at? Oh, shit!

Horde bots, tall and lethal, a small army of them, their bayonets sharp and their blasters powered up and pointed at… 

“Bow!”


	4. New Plan

She’d frozen. She’d just totally frozen. Why hadn’t he thought about how hard it would be for Catra to come here? Gods, he was such an idiot. 

Bow fired two arrows at once, notching another before they’d even hit their targets. He didn’t even have to think about it anymore, his bow was as much an extension of his body as his arms. Glimmer still woke up screaming from nightmares of her time on that ship all these weeks later and Prime hadn’t tortured and chipped and forced her to fight the fight the person she loved most. He should have realized it’d be way worse for Catra. He shot a net arrow between two clones, catching both at once. He kind of wanted to give poor Catra a hug just thinking about it, even though she’d kill him for it. He drew the bowstring back again and again, picking off the ones on the edges because he was afraid to get too close to the center of the brawl and catch his friend by mistake. 

She was holding her own so far, but he was still worried. Catra's power in a fight had always been that she didn't care what happened to her, but now she fought like someone who actually had something to live for. Luckily there didn’t seem to be more than a couple dozen clones and they’d already taken nearly half of them out, so at long as they didn’t have any other surprises, they should be—

“Bow!”

Did Catra just… call him by his actual name? Wow. She must really want his attention, because she never—

Something slammed into his back, solid fire. He exploded forward off his perch in the tree, landing hard on the ground below. The fall knocked the wind out of him and he gasped, trying to refill his lungs. Blegh. He spit out grass and tried to get back to his feet.

An electronic buzzing and a smell like sour lighting. Crud, he knew exactly what that was. He rolled fast, narrowly avoiding the blaster shot. The ground where he’d just been flared green and then burst into angry fire. 

There was a small alcove in the rock wall, and he lurched for it. It wasn’t great cover, but it would at least give him a minute to catch his breath. He honestly didn't feel too terrible for having taken a blaster to the back, and he realized why when he reached for another arrow. 

He pulled what was left of his quiver off, all of his arrows charred and destroyed. It must have taken the full force of the blast. He rummaged for a second to see if anything was salvageable—oh, man, his tracker pad too?—and tossed it aside. 

OK, so he had no arrows. That wasn’t ideal, but at least he still had his bow for hand to hand combat. Now he just needed a new plan. 

The drive hadn’t worked, which meant the clones must have changed the network since they disabled the last spire. And they probably should have thought of that, but it was irrelevant now. They were outnumbered and out-gunned. Their best option now was to retreat and regroup. 

Which meant he had to get back in there and help Catra. He sprinted back out into the open to find complete chaos. Two clones ran towards him and he got ready for a fight… but then, nope, they just kept on running. There was a bot on the ground in front of him, sliced clean in half, its edges still smoking from blaster fire. 

“About time you came to join the fun!” Catra appeared next to him, a laser cannon on each arm and a huge grin on her face. She fired off a double blast, sending clones diving in every direction. 

Huh. OK. So maybe domestic life hadn’t changed her that much. 

There’s that buzz again. Bow whipped around, thrusting his bow upwards, catching the edge of the bot’s blaster so it shot up into the sky. He kicked its legs out from under it and jabbed the horse-head tip into the glass of its camera and right through its core processor. 

There. One down. And… a whole lot to go. 

“There’s too many of them! We’ve got to get out of here!” he shouted over the roar of Catra’s blasters. They were back to back, surrounded by more Horde bots than he’d seen in one place since the final battle with Prime. He twisted his bow at one bot and then another, but there were only venerable in a few points so all it did was dent them. Gods, he hated hand to hand combat. Everything was right up in your face! This is why he used a ranged weapon! 

“Fine. But I’m taking that thing out first because I am NOT coming back here.” Before he could say anything, Catra spun and blasted through the crowd of bots. She dove through the opening, heading straight for the panel where they’d tried Entrapta’s drive. He tore after her, bashing his way across the field of half scorched Horde forces, almost skewering himself on a fallen bot's bayonet. 

Catra unleashed the full force of both canons at once at the spire, but the blast ricocheted backwards. She dove out of the way instinctively, the blasters on her arms still shooting out thick lines of electronic fire. Bow flung himself to the ground, the scorching blast only just missing him. He heard the beams connect behind him and flipped himself over in time to see a huge chunk of the mountain slide down the rock wall in a cloud of gray dust.

As the dust dissipated, he noticed the rockfall had completely blocked the pass. As in, the only way in or out of this valley. They were trapped.

No no no. He scrambled to his feet, desperately trying to think of a way out of this. He could signal for Swift Wind to get them out of here... but, no. His flare arrows were destroyed with the others. Uh, think Bow, maybe they could, uh—

Rough hands grabbed him from behind and he spun around, slamming his bow down on the clone’s neck, expecting him to go down, but there was a hollow clunk of metal on metal. That should have worked? The clone smiled, and there was absolutely nothing friendly about it. 

Crud. His attacker grabbed his bow and slammed it back into his exposed midsection. He doubled over involuntarily and the clone jabbed a knee up into his chin, sending him toppling backwards, everything stars. 

Ughh. Fuzzy vision. Aching head. Catra shouted something, but he couldn’t make it out.

Pain slammed into his side hard, stabbing along his ribs. There was a cracking sound, but it sounded more like metal than bone. He rolled, knowing he had to get up right now, couldn’t stay down like this for another second, but the fog in his head was like a weight keeping him down and no matter how he tried he couldn’t… 

Suddenly there was a soft touch on his arm and then the familiar tingle of being taken apart and put back together again. 

Glimmer!

Wait.

Glimmer? 

Oh, no.


	5. They're hereee!

Well, crap. That didn’t work. Catra’s ears still rung from the blast but she could see well enough. The damn spire was still there without so much as a scratch. She readied the cannons for another full power blast but they only glowed for a moment before sputtering out. 

Typical Horde-made junk. She threw them aside. It was time to get out of here, anyway. 

She scanned the valley. Maybe she didn’t take out the spire, but she’d done a nice bit of damage to everything else. Fried a couple of the bots good and singed some wanna be Primes who didn’t get out of the way fast enough. Now that they’d gotten knocked around a bit, their extra eyes were smearing and they didn’t look nearly so scary. Just a bunch of losers playing dress up. 

One of them grabbed for her ankle as she walked by, and she kicked him in the face without breaking her stride. Some idiot, probably Arrow Boy, had blasted the rock wall and blocked the damn path out of here. She couldn’t trust him on his own for five minutes. Nothing she couldn’t leap up, of course, but annoying as shit if she had to keep the clones and bots off until her useless sidekick could get over. 

Where the hell was he? She could have sworn he’d been just over there a second ago, getting his ass kicked. If that dummy had gotten himself hurt… 

Wait a minute. There had been clones and bots all over their ass since they got in here, but now… She could have waltzed right out of the valley right now without having to lift a claw. But the fighting was still going on somewhere, blows and blasts echoed from somewhere nearby. Prime’s forces were converging around something over there on the south side. Whoever it was was drastically outnumbered. 

Shit. If Arrow Boy was in the middle of that mess, he was a dead man. 

“Bow! Hang on, I’m coming!” She sprinted across the valley on all fours. Stupid breakable sensitive little dumbass. Don’t die, you idiot. Don’t you fucking dare. 

There was… something in the air. Familiar but… different. She sniffed, but everything still smelled like melted plastic and electric fire. Besides, it wasn’t exactly a smell; it was… She sneezed. 

Catra reached the edge of the pileup and started yanking bodies backwards, trying to get to her friend in the middle of the fray. Hands were grabbing, shoving, but she ignored them, forcing her way through. 

Suddenly a bot flew clear over her head, crashing to the ground at least a dozen feet away. She froze, her insides turning to ice. Because unless Arrow Boy had suddenly got a lot stronger there was only one person she knew who was strong enough to do that. 

“Catra!”

“Adora? What the hell? What are you doing here?” She could see her now. She-Ra, tall and golden, rose from the center of the melee. For half a second, Catra grinned, the familiar warmth she felt whenever she saw Adora spreading across her chest. She was never not glad to see her, these days anyway. Then she remembered why they were even doing this, and her flush turned to one of anger. “Hold on. You can’t be here! You need to get out!”

“No, you’re the one who needs to go! Let us handle this!”

She-Ra grunted as a clone launched itself onto her back and wrapped her in a choke hold. She slammed the heel of her sword into his gut and flipped him over her head. She turned automatically to slice the bot advancing on her left side, but her sword flickered and passed clear through it. She-Ra hesitated, looking down at her hand, and maybe it was Catra’s imagination, but she thought she saw a flash of Adora sputtering through the glow of She-Ra. 

“Adora, you dummy, the magic—”

“It’s fine!” Adora repeated the strike, this time slicing the bot in half. “Glimmer! Get her out of here!” 

“On it.” 

“Wait a minute, Spark—” She didn’t even get to finish the thought before her guts turned inside out and she crash landed in the grass. The whole world was spinning like one of Entrapta’s gizmos, and she had to swallow to keep herself from getting sick. 

Tingly my ass. Fuck teleporting. 

“Glimmer! Wait, please!” 

Arrow Boy. Well, at least he wasn’t dead. Wish she could say the same for herself. She lay face down in the grass, willing the feeling of disorientation to pass. 

“Don’t you even start! I can’t believe you two. You especially, Bow!” Sparkles sounded really mad. Which wasn’t really news except that it was at Bow. Usually he was the only one she didn’t get annoyed at. “Of all the irresponsible, dangerous…”

Her glittery majesty was working herself up into a full on rant. Catra rolled over slowly and tried to get up. She almost toppled over on the first attempt and her head still swam, but she had to see what was going on. She felt strong hands grab her arms and stabilize her. She waved Arrow Boy off once she was on her feet and leaned against a tree for support. 

“Glimmer, we don’t have time to argue about this!” he interrupted, going over to Sparkles. “You didn’t see what it was like last time. Every second we’re here, it’s just going to get worse. Either we disable the spire—” 

“We? No.” His tiny, angry girlfriend shoved him back toward Catra. “You are going to stay here and rest what is probably a concussion until we can get you back to Bright Moon. She-Ra and I will handle this.” 

“Shut up and listen for a change, Sparkles. We’re trying to save your asses.” Catra almost wished Sparkles would try to shove her like that. Not like she cared about Arrow Boy’s feelings or anything, but he looked really pissed right now and it was really rubbing Catra the wrong way how she was talking to him like he was a toddler. 

“And you! I don’t even know how you dragged Bow into this but, I swear—” 

“Glimmer, you’re—” Arrow Boy’s voice had this weird edge to it, like a warning. 

“I am not finished.”

“But look at your—”

Catra followed his eyes. They were tracking Sparkles’ hands through all their animated gesticulations. They were glowing, angry and pink around the edges. 

“No! I am going to finish with Catra and then I will deal with you later.” She pointed at them to punctuate what she was saying. 

Catra something slammed into her shoulder, hard and the next thing she knew she was back on the ground on her side. She flipped over automatically, her heart racing as she saw the tree she’d just been leaning against lying sparkle blasted into smoldering bits. Sparkles stood shocked, looking at her hands. A few feet away, Arrow Boy was scrambling back to his feet. He must have dove out of the way himself after he’d pushed Catra to safety. Shit, did she seriously owe him TWO now? 

“I don’t understand, I didn’t…” Sparkles’ eyes widened as her whole body started to glow, her edges blurring. “Wait. No. Hold on, I’m not—” Before she could finish her thought, she’d disappeared, but not before Arrow Boy lunged and grabbed her arm. A second later, they were both gone in a poof of pink sparkles and Catra was alone. 

Well, that’s just freaking great. They could be literally anywhere! For a moment, Catra stared that the spot where they’d been, the silence loud after the chaos of the battle she’d just left. 

OK. Think. She grabbed her head, pushing everything else out but the need to plan. It’s just you now. Adora and Sparkle’s magic is freaking out, and it’s getting worse every second we waste. Arrow Boy is who knows where, but at least he’s with Sparkles. Though… that may not be a good thing given the second point. He’d saved her ass twice today, but she still wasn’t sure she trusted him to save his own, especially when his girlfriend was involved.

Should she try to get back-up? Call in some non-magic C-Team which would be, uh… Sea Hawk, the Hordaks, and… that guy with the flower crown from Plumeria? Oof. She might as well call in Kyle. There was such a short list of people she trusted with her life, let alone Adora’s… 

“Catra! What’s going on?” Of course. The fucking horse. Swift Wind was galloping up to her. “Did you do it? Can we go home now? Uh… where’s Bow?” 

“You!” Catra rounded on him. “This is all your fault, isn’t it? You and your stupid sacred bond. That’s how they knew we were here. You snitched!”

“It doesn’t work like that, it’s just an open connection where—Wait a minute? She-Ra’s here? Here, where the magic is all messed up like last time?” Swift Wind's front hooves trotted in place. He looked as worried as she felt. “Oh, that's bad.”

“Yeah, no shit, assho—” The ground rocked under their feet. She grabbed onto Swift Wind’s neck for support until she realized what she was doing and let go in disgust. She looked up in time to see the sky flash gold before it flickered and disappeared. 

“Adora!” She and Swift Wind said in unison. They exchanged a look. For a once, they were on the exact same page.

Huh. Maybe the damn horse wasn’t so bad after all. 

“I have to go get her.” She started for the pass.

"Get on! I can get you there faster." Swift Wind tucked his wings, and she didn’t even hesitate before she jumped on, claws in this time. Her stomach lurched as he took to the sky, but he was right, this way was faster. It only took minutes to get up and over the mountain, but all she could do is think of the seconds ticking by and how any one of them could mean she was too late for Adora. 

“Do you see them?” She shouted over the rush of the wind. They were above the valley now, but everything below was smoke and chaos. 

“Let me get lower.” He banked, sharp and Catra hugged herself to his neck with both arms and legs. This was no way to travel. “I’ve been trying to reach She-Ra with our sacred bond but it keeps—” 

“That’s low enough!” The ground was approaching rapidly and Catra screwed her eyes shut. It’s OK. He’s just doing it to be an idiot. Any minute now, he’ll adjust course at the last second just to get a rise out of her. But something felt wrong. Even as they gained a little altitude, they were wobbling, like a skiff with the sideboard motors failing. “Pull up, you dumb horse, or we’re going to—”

They slammed into the grass and Catra flew over his neck. She flipped in the air, catching the grass with all four paws. 

“What the hell was that?” The air was thick with burning and fried electricity, bots and clones running everywhere. She scanned the mayhem for her friends but didn’t see them. “This is a serious situation, you’d think you could stop being an ass for… Swift Wind?” 

He was being really quiet for a change. And when she spun around to look at him at last, she understood why. 

Swift Wind was gone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Programming note: I decided to totally redo the ending. The new ending is much better... but it means that I have to rewrite the next few sections so they will take longer than usual! I will post them as soon as I get them fixed up! In the meantime, I'll be posting other random fics while I figure this out.


	6. Really Super Bad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyyy, so I'm really sorry I left you all hanging for so long there! It was NaNoWriMo then the holidays and then I am running this fanworks even this month called [SPOP Palentines](https://spop-palentines.tumblr.com/) where I've been trying to get [a fic up every day this month](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29145804) (cries) which has been taking up a ton of my time and then I had actual real writing work to do for my job and I've just generally been running around like a headless chicken.
> 
> But I am BACK now! 
> 
> This is a short chapter (because it kills my little writer heart to have two POVs in the same chapter) but the next chapter from Catra POV will be along very shortly and then we'll power through to the end. Expect the number of remaining chapters to change willy nilly because I am terrible at estimating where I will want to break things up but we've got a brand new (better!) ending to this than what I originally wrote so it's full speed ahead, baby!

Normally, teleporting was like kissing someone you really really liked. Exciting… but a little terrifying too. And, after, you felt a little lightheaded, sure, but, in a good way. Like you had too much of something sweet and bubbly. A fairground thrill that left you laughing and wobbly, but you couldn’t wait to do it again. 

Or maybe it was that Bow’s feelings about teleporting were completely tied up in his feelings for Glimmer and it was impossible to separate the two in his head. 

When he was little, the sensation had always reminded him of one of those puzzle cubes he and his siblings had. It was amazing how the whole thing could unravel down to such small pieces but there was a comforting logic in how it always snapped back together with reliable predictability. 

At least, that’s how it normally felt. 

Bow felt himself slam back together, every cell in his body vibrating from the impact. Jarring as the sensation was, it was a relief too. There had been a moment there when it felt like he’d come too far apart, his atoms spread so far away from each other they’d float off and never be reunited again. He felt like he’d been zapped with an electric current but instead it was magic, uncontrolled, and unpredictable. 

He wobbled on his feet, trying to shake the feeling of disorientation like everything hadn’t quite reassembled back into the right places. He took shallow breaths, dizzy nausea in his gut. He couldn’t be sick right now, he needed to help—

Someone shoved him, hard enough his backside hit the scorched grass. His vision swam with flecks of purple light until he finally focused on Glimmer her outline crackling with pink sparks. Had she really just shoved him away? Gosh, she must even madder at him than he’d thought. 

“Glimmer!” He reached for her automatically but she pulled back.

“Don’t touch me! I don’t—” And then she was gone with a sound that was more like a crack than the usual twinkle. 

Okay… Where did she go? He scrambled awkwardly to his feet, thankful that whatever else the teleportation had done, it had cleared that fuzzy feeling in his head. They were back in the valley which wasn’t any less chaotic than it had been when they’d left it. 

Had Glimmer brought them here on purpose or did the hotspot draw her back here? Based on the way she’d almost blasted him and Catra to bits a minute ago, he was having a lot of trouble imagining she had a lot of control over her powers right now but that idea was absolutely terrifying.

He didn’t have a lot of time to contemplate it. Two clones had spotted him, the one’s arm cannon powering up. He dove behind the nearest tree, reaching automatically for his bow before remembering it was broken and lost somewhere. He dove as the tree exploded in smoking splinters and he ducked behind a rock, trying to catch his breath. 

OK, so completely out-numbered. Had absolutely no idea where Glimmer was and she was probably avoiding him and/or never speaking to him again. Clones and bots everywhere. And he was completely unarmed. 

So… yeah. This was really super bad. 

The clones were moving slowly, trying to find him again. The smoke from the tree must have provided him just enough cover. He tried to steady his breathing to not give himself away. It would be madness to try to actually fight two of them without a weapon, especially with that cannon, he’d just have to— 

“Bow!” 

Glimmer. He whipped towards the sound of her voice, forgetting about everything but finding her, but she disappeared before he caught more than a brief twinkle. 

“The Queen. She cost us many brethren at the fall.” The clone’s voices were close. Bow risked a glance above the rock. The two of them had their eyes trained on the spot where Glimmer had disappeared. “Her sacrifice will bring great honor to the memory of Lord Prime, speed his glorious resurrection.”

“There she is again.” The other drew what looked like a long knife from his belt. “It would be an honor and a privilege to be the one to be the one ends her life.” 

“Yeah, absolutely not.” Bow launched himself over the rock slammed his body into the nearest clone, sending them both sprawling to the ground. The other turned the cannon on him but he swept his leg, bringing him down alongside them. He tried to get to his feet but the first clone pulled him down. In a second, he was pinned, the long knife at his throat. 

The clone leaned over him, a maniacal gleam in his green eyes. “Death to all enemies of Horde Prime, revered one of the shining galaxies, promised—” 

“Save it.” Bow pulled a knee up under the clone and flipped the clone over his head. He jumped to his feet, only to find the other one’s cannon trained on him.

“This is for his most esteemed majesty of the seven— Oof!” 

Bow grabbed the cannon by the barrel, yanking it downward, the clone too surprised to fire. He kicked the clone while the cannon itself hit the ground in a shower of sparks, backfiring a shock that sent the clone sprawling backward. If the clone had fired, at that range, he’d be— but he wasn’t thinking, just reacting, fueled by fury. If they so much as TOUCHED Glimmer. He considered grabbing the discarded cannon but the other clone grabbed him from behind, the knife at his throat again. 

“We will consecrate this planet with the blood of the princesses and then—” 

Bow slammed his fist backward, connecting with what felt like the clone’s eye. His attacker jerked backward and the blade struck the gold plating in Bow’s collar. Another inch higher and it would have sliced his throat. He realized dimly that he should probably be more worried about how close a call that was but self-preservation was surprisingly low on his list of priorities right now. 

The clone he’d hit was stumbling backward, grabbing his eyes with his free hand. “Fool! Why would you hit the person with a blade at your throat? You—” 

Bow didn’t let him finish. He hauled off and punched the guy in the face hard enough that he sent him sprawling, his knife flying out of his hand. Bow shook out his hand, ignoring the sting in his fingers, and picked the weapon up himself. He kept his eye on the clone but he was out cold in the grass. He tightened his grip on the knife and turned to the other one. 

“We have been waiting, preparing, knowing you would come.” The clone was sitting upright in the grass alongside the broken cannon, his breathing labored but his smile no less chilling. Bow could imagine so easily what it would be like to run him through with this blade, this monster who talked about killing the person he loved with a look of rapture and a grin. “And once we have executed She-Ra and the queen, we will finish what our elevated lord began and purge this planet of the princesses until this world like all others is bathed in Prime’s glorious—”

Bow kicked him hard under the chin and the clone went still. He raised the knife and then jabbed it down into the ground alongside the unconscious clone’s head. 

The good guys, remember. 

He exhaled, adrenaline shaking in his limbs. They’d been expecting them. That was why there were so many bots, so many clones here. And now Glimmer was in more trouble than ever. 

He didn’t care how mad she was at him, he had to get her out of here. But he had to find her first. Before the clones did. He didn’t even want to think about what would happen if he didn’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bow can go a little apeshit. As a treat.


	7. Damn it, Adora!

Okay… where the flying fuck did the horse go? 

Catra sneezed, not sure this time if it was from magic or the noxious smoke that clouded everything. She tried to get her bearings. Bits of bots lay sparking in the grass. A clone, face down, not moving. Couple of rocks and trees, all looking worse for wear. Some big brown lump. A bush, quietly smoldering. 

But no sign of Adora. Or Swift Wind. Not Arrow Boy and Sparkles either, but for all she knew they’d already fucked off back to Bright Moon on that teleport and were having tea by the fire and talking about feelings or some other boring shit. 

“Catra!” 

Catra turned to see Adora and… what the femme fried FUCK was she wearing? It was like the She-Ra suit, but somehow even more stupid than usual. The tiara had massive golden wings on the side of it, the red cape stretched down past her ass, the shorts had become a mini-skirt and there were no sleeves, only a white bodice that was apparently attached to her boobs with nothing but the power of magic. And, I’m sorry, but were those THIGH HIGH STILETTO GOLD BOOTS?

Catra was so disgusted she was almost turned on. Almost. 

“Catra, what are you doing here?” Adora ran over to where she was, at least a dozen bots in pursuit. She spun around and whacked the nearest one with what looked like a golden whisk. It didn’t so much as slow it down. “You shouldn’t be here! It’s dangerous!”

“Yeah, dangerous for YOU, dummy! Arrow Boy and I had this handled before you and Sparkles had to come crashing in here with your defective magic to screw everything up!” She leaped over Adora’s head and ripped the guts out of the bot to punctuate her point. They hadn’t had it handled, not really, but it was kind of annoying the shit out of her that Adora kept acting like she was made of glass. Did she not remember the part when she’d almost conquered the entire fucking planet with nothing but an army of idiots and an emo space bat? She was the only competent person on this entire team! Catra sliced the head off the nearest bot and tossed it into its neighbor with enough force that the bot toppled over. 

“You’re not—ARGH! Come ON!” Adora shouted and Catra looked over to see her waving what appeared to a golden ribbon. She shook it and in rapid succession it turned into a spoon, then a rope, a toaster, a back-scratcher and then a tuba. With a growl of frustration, Adora slammed the golden tuba down over the head of the nearest bot and kicked it over. Her form flickered for a moment, switching between Adora and what looked a lot like her original She-Ra outfit. “I can do this, Catra!” 

“Are you kidding, you’re—” Catra stopped as Adora muttered a curse. Her girlfriend looked down at herself helplessly as she started glowing gold, bright enough that it lit the valley up like the midday sun. Catra realized what was happening just in time and dove for cover as the golden tuba exploded in a small supernova of blue light. It reduced the bot been underneath it to a pile of smoldering ash. Catra picked herself up, dusting off bits of fried Primebot. “Shit, Adora. Let me guess, you’re going to tell me you did that on purpose?”

“I’ve got it, I just—” She was just Adora again, her hand outstretched. The sword flickered into it for a moment, but then sputtered out. The blast had toppled most of the bots, but they were getting back up, with reinforcements coming. Adora grunted and tried again, sweat beading on her forehead. Something sword-like appeared in her hand… much more glittery and pink than the usual one, but it apparently did the trick. Catra watched as she lifted the sword aloft and golden glitter twisted around her. “See? I told you I had it under control!”

“Right. Completely in control.” Catra shook her head. She-Ra stood before her. Well, sort of… “Then what’s with the cape?” 

“This?” Adora twisted to look at out her cape, the usual gold one replaced by a shimmering pink and gold cloak dotted like a sparkling sky. She held out the edge of it and Catra had to hit the dirt again as stars of pure light shot out of it, embedding into the tree behind her like celestial throwing stars before dissolving into stardust. “Whoa! Hey! That’s new!”

Adora turned to the bots and opened both sides of the cape this time, peppering the enemy with sparkling shrapnel. It wasn’t particularly effective, only slowed them down a little, but it was keeping them back, giving them some breathing room. At least, it was until She-Ra flickered again and it was only Adora standing with her arms outstretched. 

“Aw, man! Give that back! That one was fun!” She stood for a moment, flapping her arms like a deranged chicken, but neither the starburst cape nor She-Ra came back. “Come on, you stupid—”

“Adora!” Catra leaped up and slammed into her girlfriend, pulling them both to the ground before they were fried by the blast of an ion cannon. That one was way too close. Catra could still feel the heat of it through her shirt, and she was pretty sure she was missing some fur on the back of her legs. “Alright, enough! Stop trying to summon She-Ra! Your powers are going haywire! You can’t control them and you’re going to get us both killed if we don’t—” 

A sound split the air unlike anything Catra had ever heard before. Loud, tortured and absolutely not human. Nothing should be able to make a sound like that! The fur all over her body stood up on end and she leaped up instinctively, ready to protect Adora from whatever it was. 

“What—” Adora scrambled to her feet. Luckily the bots seemed as confused about the noise as they were and had stopped blasting as they tried to find the source of the noise. Catra was scanning the surrounding valley, waiting for any moment to be attacked by some giant worm or boar or whatever other nightmare creatures the magic of this weird ass planet had barfed out this time. She backed up, hoping to keep one hand on Adora to make sure the idiot didn’t do something stupid like… yup, pretty much exactly like that. With a gasp, Adora took off and all Catra could do was groan and follow. 

“Damn it, Adora! Get back here! We have to get you out of—OOF!” She was so busy looking for some kind of gigantic threat looming above them she almost flew clear over the large brown lump she’d seen before. Except now, as it writhed and emitted that unearthly scream, she realized it wasn’t a lump. 

“Oh my gods! What happened!” Adora fell to her knees next to the thing’s head, a thrashing blur of hair and teeth. “Shhh. It’s OK. It’s me!”

“We don’t have time for this! We have to leave!” Catra stayed standing, better to defend them when the bots figured out where they’d gone. That and she wasn’t too keen to get near those flailing hooves, two of which were pointed at unnatural angles with some… eesh, yeah, OK, that was exposed bone. Gross. She averted her eyes. 

“Catra. I can’t just leave him.” Adora looked up, tears brimming in her eyes. “It’s Horsey!”

“O… kay.” Catra wasn’t sure what reaction she was supposed to be giving, so she tried to keep her face neutral. Arrow Boy had mentioned once that Adora was kinda horse crazy, but she hadn’t really seen it in action before. Clearly, Adora was really upset about this… generic brown horse and Catra was trying to be sympathetic but they were kind of in moral danger at the moment and she wasn’t super eager for either of them to die over some random farm beast every town on this planet had at least a dozen of. She pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to keep control of her temper even though it was almost impossible with that THING shrieking right next to her. “And it’s a… nice… horsey. But we really really need to—” 

“No! Catra, it’s Swifty! Swift Wind! This is what he was… before. Before I transformed him!” Tears were streaming down her face and she kept trying to stroke Horsey’s face, but the beast was out of its mind with pain, wide-eyed and crazed. 

“Wait a minute. You mean you MADE that chatty asshole? On PURPOSE?” Adora wasn’t listening. Her entire body tensed with concentration, her form flickering erratically like a candle at the end of its wick. “Adora, what are you doing? Stop it! I said no more powers! You’ve clearly lost control of them!” 

“He’s hurt! Can’t you see he’s suffering?”

“Good! Then we can shoot him, put us all out of our misery!”

“I need She-Ra so I can heal him.” 

“Damn it, Adora, no!” 

Adora ignored her. Catra could only watch as the golden aura around her solidified, her hair moving in an upward draft that didn’t exist. At least this time she looked like her normal She-Ra form. Maybe they’d get lucky and this wouldn’t be a total disaster. Adora leaned over to touch the horse with her golden finger tips.

POW! There was an explosion of light and, for a moment, Catra thought maybe it had worked because the horse had stopped its horrible screaming. Except of course they never had it that easy.

“Fuck fuck FUCK SHIIIIIIT! Ow! OWWW! Moldy flaming hay bales shit shit shit it hurts it hurts it hurts! What the barn FUCKING door? Adora, do something! FUUUUUUCK!” 

“Welcome back, Swift Wind.” Catra couldn’t keep the side of her mouth from crooking up. His legs were still broken, but at least She-Ra’s faithful steed was his winged self again. He shouted something really creative about where she could shove an apple core that she’d really have to remember to write down later. 

“No no no! That was supposed to be HEALING! Damn it, why won’t you WORK!” Adora jumped to her feet and threw her sword at the nearest tree. Catra turned to watch it connect and realize they’d run out of time. They were surrounded, clones whose eyes glinted with as much danger as the long knives they carried. Behind her, Swift Wind tried to get to his feet and collapsed in pain, screamed anew.

“She-Ra. Lord Prime’s oldest enemy. We knew you would come. And now we will consecrate this land with your blood, purifying it for—”

“Fuck you.” Catra launched herself at the speaker, kicking off the flat of the blade in his hand. She grabbed onto the back of his tunic, letting gravity drag him down with her while she kicked the clone behind him in the face. She landed on her other foot and pivoted, slicing the arm of the clone to her right with her claws. He shouted and dropped his blade. She was outnumbered but too hopped up on rage to care.

So it’s blood you want spilled, huh? She slammed into another one, sending him crashing into the brother behind. She’d be happy to oblige, slice open your fucking throats with her claws, every last one of you, for even THINKING of touching her Adora— Hey! One of them grabbed her shoulder, but before she could whip around and deal with him, the love of her life did something fucking boneheaded again.

“Don’t. Touch. Her.”

The world exploded in bright white light, and Catra found herself flying backwards. She scrambled to her feet, feeling woozy, and squinted. Everything was still so bright it hurt. It took her a moment to make sense of the surrounding silhouettes. Clones were scattered across the ground, knocked over by the force of… whatever Adora had done. She was standing in the center of a sizable scorch mark, looking determined but otherwise kind of a hot mess. Her She-Ra form was flickering between old to new, the magic around her arcing and uncontrolled, her face tight like she was only keeping it together through sheer force of will. 

It was kind of sexy and badass for about five seconds before her sword turned into an anvil and she panicked and dropped it half an inch from her toe. When it hit the ground, it turned into some kind of long-necked bird, like a decorative lawn ornament, and send out a pulse of magic that hit Catra with a weird tingle like she’d just been spritzed with espresso.

Well, there’s the healing spell at least.

“Finally!” Swift Wind was back on his feet, wobbling like he was drunk, but at least both his legs seemed to be whole. “Now let’s get out of here before anything else happens!” 

“Yes! Grab Adora and get out of here!” The healing spell hadn’t just fixed Swift Wind. All around the valley, clones they’d already knocked out were getting back up, looking fresh and ready for a fight. 

“No! I have to protect you!” Before Catra could protest, Adora stepped alongside her, her arm outstretched, something vaguely sword shaped materializing in her hand. She grunted and the surrounding glow solidified. Except that this time, when it receded, she was wearing a sparkly pink mini dress. When she thrust her hand forward towards the oncoming clones, the long pink staff she held only released a harmless stream of tiny bubbles. “Huh, ok, that’s not what I… hmm.”

“Damn it, Adora! We! Need! To! Leave!” Catra watched Adora shake the pink staff and mutter. She just wouldn’t listen. The only way she was going to get this idiot out of here is if she was literally—

“Catra! Glimmer is—” Arrow Bow sprinted up, looking worse for wear and out of breath. He froze when he noticed She-Ra: Princess of Bubbles. “Adora? What are you—”

“Bow?” Adora turned, so surprised to hear Arrow Boy that she lost control of her She-Ra form entirely, slipping back into good old regular Adora. Catra took her chance. 

“Sorry, babe,” she said before punching her as hard as she could in the side of her head, sending Adora sprawling onto the ground. 

“Catra!” Arrow Boy looked from Adora’s unconscious figure on the ground back up to Catra with a look of complete horror. 

“Hey! It stopped her magic from freaking out, didn’t it?” Arrow Boy just stared at her, open-mouthed. “Come on, she’ll be FINE, the hair poof kind of cushions… Look, do you want her out of here or not?” She had linked her arms under Adora’s armpits and was trying to hoist her onto Swift Wind, but she was all dead weight. “Are you going to stand there being judgmental until the clones slice us all in half or are you going to help me get her out of here before she wakes up and wants to hero complex us all to death?” 

Arrow Boy exhaled, shook his head, and then helped her get Adora onto Swift Wind’s back. 

Catra settled herself onto Swift Wind behind Adora, who was currently drooling peacefully against her faithful steed’s neck. Catra wrapped her arms around her middle gently, keeping her secure, really hoping that dummy didn’t get mad at her for this. She turned to Arrow Boy.

“Now go get yours so we can get out of here.”

“But…. mine is so much harder!” She heard him whine as they took off and headed out of the valley. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes you just have to cram a bunch of goofy jokes for your own amusement into a chapter and that is VALID. (Did you get all my cheesy references?) 
> 
> What you need to know about my process and why the number of remaining chapters varies so widely is that this ENTIRE chapter was originally just one paragraph. 
> 
> You know how everyone says there's one specific scene that made them write the entire fic? The next chapter is that one for me! *rubs evil little hands together* 
> 
> How do you think Bow's going to get Glimmer? Will he also just cold cock her? 🤔

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are always hugely appreciated no matter how long after posting it is!
> 
> Visit my Tumblr for asks, fic updates and misc thoughts. [https://tippenfunkaport.tumblr.com](https://tippenfunkaport.tumblr.com/)


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